Saturday, March 4, 2017

Two Burmese Hijack Plane, Then Surrender

U-TAPAO, Thailand, Saturday, Oct. 7— Two Burmese students who hijacked an airliner to dramatize human rights abuses in their homeland surrendered to the Thai security forces Saturday after a nine-hour standoff.
The students freed all 83 passengers and crew unharmed after releasing a list of political demands for the Burmese military Government.
It was not immediately known what convinced the hijackers to end the ordeal but earlier they had asked Thai authorities to let them publish their demands, which included release of political prisoners in Myanmar, formerly Burma.
They two hijacked the airliner on Friday on a flight from Mergui to the Burmese capital, Yangon, formerly Rangoon. The plane, a Fokker 28, was diverted to U-Tapao, a military base 80 miles southeast of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand, where the hijackers freed 33 of the 83 passengers, then threatened to blow the plane up unless their demands were met.
They demanded that Myanmar's Government, which took power 13 months ago, release all political prisoners, send all troops back to barracks and lift a nationwide overnight curfew.



link

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/07/world/two-burmese-hijack-plane-then-surrender.html

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